Good concept, poorly executed.

Don't listen to the Hype. It's awful

Easily the biggest piece of Right wing non sense propaganda I ever saw.

The film's masterful storytelling did its job. The message was clear. No need to overdo.

In a way, this is a picture about generations. May Robson is Queen Elizabeth; Leslie Banks is her lifelong adviser and admirer, the Earl of Leicester; and Morton Selten is Lord Burleigh, loyal and aged adviser. Together they are the elder generation: as Burleigh puts it, they have spent their lives as caretakers of the monarchy during mostly quiet times. Now it's 1587.Among the younger generation is Vivien Leigh as Burleigh's granddaughter Cynthia, a lady in waiting to the queen. Cynthia is passionate, flighty, forgetful—and beautiful. She loves "the boy" Michael Ingolby, son of another of Elizabeth's loyal followers. Michael is portrayed with great energy by, of course, a very youthful Laurence Olivier.The plot focuses on the court in London, where it is feared that spies may be afoot…and then on the Spanish court, where Olivier plays a dangerous role as forces gather toward an invasion of England by the imposing new armada. Among those involved on the Spanish side are Robert Newton, very good as a young nobleman; and an actress named Tamara Desni, excellent in a key role as a young woman who encounters Olivier.Raymond Massey is superb as King Philip of Spain. His best speech is one in which he simply repeats a single word several times: "And?"—Not much to it, but as played between Olivier and Massey it's a classic scene. Flora Robson is perfect as the queen. She's given such wonderful speeches, and she speaks them so well….In one scene, she asks Leigh's character how old she is; eighteen, the answer comes. "When I was eighteen, I was a prisoner in the Tower," Robson replies—neither bitterly nor scornfully, but with just a trace of wistfulness and the calm of a monarch who has ruled long but can indeed remember her own youth. This is also a deeply patriotic English film; viewers were certainly aware that the foreign threat looming over England in 1937 was every bit as daunting as that posed by the Armada 350 years earlier. It's a call to courage that both celebrates tradition and promotes the idea that a new generation must grasp its own opportunities—meet its own needs—for heroism.

A Fine Film, Fire Over England has some wonderful acting.For Me Flora Robson gave the best performance as the tempered but Glorious Elizabeth I. Although this Film i noted as being the first pairing of Laurence Olivier and his future wife Vivien Leigh, The Scenes between Olivier and Tamara Desni as Elena, The daughter of a Spanish Admiral, were far more memorable. The Dracula like Philip II Of Spain, Portrayed by Raymond Massey left me wishing he appeared in more scenes in the film. Not having known much about the Attack of the Spanish Armada on England, i was left thinking that the whole fleet was sent ablaze by the seven English ships set on fire. So Historical Accuracy is not all there. This is a Great film for 1937, With a great cast.

Renowned and handsomely-mounted early British spectacular with imposing credentials – producers Alexander Korda and Erich Pommer, cinematographer James Wong Howe, art director Lazare Meerson, special effects creator Ned Mann – and a cast virtually assembling the cream of the crop working in the country at that particular moment – Laurence Olivier, Flora Robson, Leslie Banks, Vivien Leigh, Raymond Massey, Robert Newton, James Mason – all of which is complemented by a suitably rousing score from Richard Addinsell.The narrative revolves around the planned invasion of England during the reign of Queen Elizabeth I by the Spanish armada of King Philip II (with help from British traitors); the former is magnificently embodied by Robson (who would eventually return to the role in Hollywood for the Errol Flynn vehicle THE SEA HAWK [1940]), while the latter is played by Massey as a sleek but cagey monarch. With one of the dissidents among her ranks (Mason) intercepted, the English Queen appoints a young naval officer (Olivier) – who had just lost his admiral father to the Spanish Inquisition – to assume the conniver's identity and travel to Philip's court in order to obtain the names of his associates and establish the enemy's strategy for attack. Complications arise when one of the Spanish ruler's subordinates (Newton) is revealed to be married to the woman (pretty Tamara Desni – the German-born Russian actress died in France only last month at the venerable age of 97!) who had previously cared for the wounded Olivier, their respective fathers having been the best of friends. Torn between betraying his country or his wife, Newton engineers Olivier's flight home – whereupon the latter receives a knighthood, before being promptly sent by his sovereign (along with the conspirators newly-swayed to patriotic duty) on a mission to destroy the approaching enemy fleet! The film maintains a good balance throughout between romance (thanks to Olivier's matinée idol looks, he's briefly involved with Desni apart from his love interest in England – provided by future wife Leigh, as the Queen's lady-in-waiting, in the first of three on-screen collaborations…though Robson herself is shown carrying a hesitant torch for veteran and devoted chief adviser Banks!), intrigue (in effect at both camps), action (including raids by pirate ships, a couple of chases, discreet swordplay and culminating in the final elaborate fiery offensive) and propaganda (WWII was already looming at this point). While the print I viewed turned out to be anything but pristine, I was grateful to have finally caught this altogether splendid historical epic; incidentally, I'd become acquainted with several wonderful Korda productions over the years on both Italian TV and VHS – but, oddly enough, FIRE OVER ENGLAND itself seldom turned up until now in my neck of the woods!

This is a dramatic B/W film made just before WWII was begun by Adolf Hitler. The British Empire-based filmmakers draw a distinction between the theocratic Spanish Empire of Philip II, ably played by Raymond Massey, and the somewhat parliamentary government of England's island under the Protestant governance of Tudor Queen Elizabeth I, portrayed by Flora Robson with yet-unmatched power and skill. The distinction is important; although the misuse of their powers by neo-imperial-U.S. and post-Empire British governments have lessened our perception of the difference between the two regimes, that difference is in fact real and cleverly presented. The vehicle for the storyline was a novel by A.E. W. Mason. Clemence Dane's screenplay follows the adventure of young Michael, agent of the Queen, as he tries to uncover the nature and extent of a Spanish spy-ring operating in England. This requires him to pretend to be one of them and present himself to Philip; but his pretense fails for lack of a missing password. He is imprisoned in Spain, falls half in love with a lovely Spanish girl, daughter of his jailer, although he really loves one of Elizabeth's ladies-in-waiting; but she allows him to escape when she sees what Philip's evil is doing to her country's people, and he hastes back to the court in time to uncover the plot and save Elizabeth. Elizabeth then give her famous speech that rallies the English to defeat the Spanish Armada and save England, to become another empire and finally in our century a country again. The plot is fairly well-done, but the beauty of the film lies in its characters and dialogue and the way these are brought to life by an excellent cast. Laurence Olivier is Michael, Vivien Leigh is the girl he loves, Leslie Banks is the Earl of Leicester, Morton Selten is Lord Burleigh ;and Robert Newton heads the villains with Tamara Desni as the Spanish girl, plus many other fine British stage actors. The music was composed by Richard Addinsell, William K. Howard directed, cinematography was by the legendary James Wong Howe and camera-work by Wilkie Cooper. This is not a great film, but the restored B/W version is beautiful; the characters memorable, the villains intelligently unethical and some of the actors, especially Robson, superb. This is also a very good film about the era of Elizabeth and the meaning of tyranny--and what honorable men need to risk to avoid having its shadow fall over their lives; and what one group of men in the late 1580s dared to do.